Alleys of Washington

Although Agnes Myer wrote her essay in the 1940s, I feel that elements from her piece are still pertinent to today. Myer highlights two distinct points: the first being the housing problem in DC and the second being the social ramifications of poverty found in low-income, often black communities. As we have read in other essays and as Myers mentions , DC is renown for being a "civilized city", in which things such as racial segregation and slums should not exist. However, they existed in DC in the '40s, they exist now, and they exist in many other parts of the country. Slum housing is not an anomaly, and I was happy to see that Myer made the connection between disease, crime rates, and delinquency, and living in poverty. Even today in DC, I have observed that housing communities are often fairly homogeneous and it is still true that there is not enough affordable housing for the lower and middle classes.

Sidenote: However, I have to respectfully disagree with Myer on the topic of education. The DC school system has never been, nor is it now, an "excellent" school system and social work and education as methods to fight against poverty are never a waste. What may have been the source of the problem was that the methods that were used to pacify racial tensions and inequalities were not understood or studied to the fullest capacity.